The Breathtaking Madness of Ski Jumping at 60 MPH

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Hurling from a ski jump is a 60 mph dive into nothingness, athletes momentarily suspended in air as they soar over the landscape. It takes grace and guts to pull it off, and photographer David Ryle captures both in his series Ski Hopp.

Ryle shot at Holmenkollen ski jump near Oslo, Norway in February. He relied upon up-and-coming skiers Jonas Schøien Øvegård and Jorgen Madsen to do the flying, and on a skilled team to do everything else. Gemma Fletcher, the artistic director, and Jorge Luis Dieguez, the director of photography, helped Ryle meticulously map the facility and chose shooting locations.

Staggering themselves along the slope, Ryle and Dieguez would fire away at various angles as the skiers flew overhead. They shot photos and video, capturing the electrifying experience of a lone figure soaring through the air. “There is a certain elegance to ski jumping, but I’m also trying to convey that it’s really scary,” Ryle says.

The series also highlights the impressive stature of the jump, which is something of a national landmark. Holmenkollen has hosted competitions since 1892, including the 1952 Winter Games and multiple Nordic World Ski Championships. A 2010 redesign by JDS Architects made the jump even more intimidating, now nearly 200 feet tall and 36 degrees at its steepest point. It's been in the news recently as a tourist destination raffled by Airbnb. Ryle and his team worried the project might not work because the snow was melting, but it stayed cold enough to keep shooting.

In competition, points are awarded for form and distance. Skiers shoot through the air in a V shape because it maximizes lift. Although the best pros can fly more than 800 feet, they aren't as high as they may appear. “I always had this idea that they flew a million miles into the sky but they’re fairly close,” Ryle says.

Because of this, he digitally removed the ground in some of the photos to help convey the vastness he was chasing. While the short film is more documentary, the project is meant to capture essence of the experience, not reflect it in a journalistic style. “I don’t pretend to tell the truth, so it’s more my idea of how I see ski jumping,” Ryle says.